Howard tells of key beliefs

Michael Howard today built on his decision to publish a list of "personal beliefs" by telling how he inherited his values from his immigrant father.

The Tory leader used an interview to describe his earliest political influences, saying he wanted voters to understand the passions which brought him into politics.

It came as the Conservatives launched an advertising campaign based around a unique personal credo he said would form the basis of the next Tory manifesto.

Billed as the party's first positive campaigning for a decade, the list of 16 principles will be put up on billboards and emailed to supporters.

The move was designed to show Mr Howard as a more passionate figure. The Tory leader quickly followed up the exercise by giving his most revealing interview yet about his early political experiences in the Sixties - and his love of the Beatles and Elvis.

He said he learned the values of patriotism and tolerance from his father Bernard, a businessman who fled to Britain from Romania and died from cancer when Mr Howard was 25.

"My father was obviously extremely appreciative of the values of this country and grateful. He always used to say to me, this is the best country in the world," he told The Times.

He said his father taught him "the tolerance, the fairness, the anger at injustice, the great sense of moderation which is, I think one of the characteristics of the British people".

Mr Howard said one of his most influential moments was getting on a coach in America during the Sixties and seeing that blacks were forced to sit at the back.

Mr Howard also revealed he was an early fan of the Beatles after discovering the group while a student at Cambridge and saw them several times.

He added: "The Conservative Party is at its strongest when it offers positive and fresh thinking."